


blue and gold

by lesmiserablol



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Light Angst, M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:35:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25490962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesmiserablol/pseuds/lesmiserablol
Summary: Sokka had heard about soulmates meeting for the first time, but nothing could have prepared him for the way that, as he began his attack to defend his tiny village, the world instantly burst into color. He and his soulmate, the boy getting off the Fire Nation ship, locked eyes and stared at each other for several moments. Sokka’s eyes were wide in disbelief, while his soulmate had a blank look of shock on his face that turned into steely resolve as he kicked Sokka off the gangway in one smooth motion.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 103
Kudos: 1755





	blue and gold

**Author's Note:**

> An anon on tumblr asked if I knew any Zukka fics where you start to see color when you first meet your soulmate. I didn't, so I wrote one.

It’s not that Sokka resents his sister. It’s just hard not to compare and feel bitter about the fact that when she found her soulmate, they discovered later that day that he is the Avatar, while Sokka...well. 

Sokka had heard about soulmates meeting for the first time, but nothing could have prepared him for the way that, as he began his attack to defend his tiny village, the world instantly burst into color. He and his soulmate, the boy getting off the Fire Nation ship, locked eyes and stared at each other for several moments. Sokka’s eyes were wide in disbelief, while his soulmate had a blank look of shock on his face that turned into steely resolve as he kicked Sokka off the gangway in one smooth motion. 

_Nice to meet you too, soulmate,_ he thought bitterly as he wiped his nose on his sleeve. The color of his blood was the same color as the flags on the ship. Fitting, with all the pain the Fire Nation had brought to the world, and to Sokka especially. 

* * *

His name is Zuko, he learns. He pushes Zuko off his own ship. He faces him while dressed as a Kyoshi warrior. He runs from him when they can and puts up a fight when they can't. He avoids looking in his eyes, but sees the same color in the sky as the sun sets. 

Katara and Aang learn the names of the colors together. They are excited to show each other new shades of blues and reds, and Sokka tries not to feel excluded. 

Between it all, he studies the small scroll his mother had painted for him years and years ago. His sister has a matching one, and she pulls it out often to look over it with Aang. Sokka keeps his hidden, only opening it during the nights when he can’t sleep. There are painted splotches of just a few colors, the name of each one labeled on the side. He studies them and learns them and finds there are more than what his mother could paint while in the Southern Water Tribe. He doesn't know their names, but he will.

* * *

“What color is that?” Sokka points at a shiny piece of jewelry in a store in Ba Sing Se. 

“That is gold,” the shop owner kindly tells him. 

“Gold,” he whispers to himself. 

“Don’t worry, Sokka,” Katara says from behind him, and he feels like he jumps ten feet in the air. “I’ll reteach you all their names, one day.”

Sokka doesn’t lie to his sister. Not telling her that he can see color is more of an omission of the truth, he reminds himself. 

“I’ll take you up on that offer,” he grins, walking out of the shop with her after giving a nod to the owner. 

Gold. He repeats the name in his mind over and over, desperate to not forget it. Gold. Gold. The color of Zuko’s eyes. Gold.

* * *

Sokka remembers when he was young, his father shared with him some wisdom about soulmates being made, not found. Sokka hadn’t listened much, convinced that once he laid his eyes on the person that brought color into his life, he wouldn’t need to look any further. 

He should’ve listened. 

Yue is so beautiful. She is so kind. And the way she smiles at him makes Sokka feel more special than he thought anyone could ever make him feel. After they kiss, she looks away. 

“I can’t see color,” she admits. 

“I can,” he says, and she looks surprised. “It’s overrated, if you ask me.”

It’s not, though, he just wants to believe that it is and believe that he could be with someone who doesn’t see color because of him. When she fades from his arms, he feels a pang of sadness on her behalf, knowing she never got to see the world in its full glory with all of its many colors. 

* * *

They have only known Toph for a few days, and Sokka won’t admit it, but she kind of scares him. So he doesn't argue when she insists on accompanying him to go hunting one night.

“Sometimes being around two soulmates all the time gets a little nauseating,” she sighs. 

Sokka rolls his eyes. So that's why she wanted to tag along, he can't blame her for wanting a break. “You can say that again. Those two are impossible.”

“Have you met your soulmate?” she asks after a few minutes of silent hunting. When she senses an animal she stops walking, points in a direction, and Sokka throws his boomerang toward whatever unsuspecting animal is about to become their dinner. 

“No,” he says without a second thought, ignoring the golden eyes that burn in his memory. 

Toph is quiet for a few moments. It isn’t for a few more weeks that Sokka learns she knows when people are lying. For now, she just shrugs. 

“If it makes you feel better, I can’t see color either,” she says seriously. 

A startled laugh escapes out of Sokka, scaring away a bird from a nearby tree. 

* * *

Sokka is speechless at the sight of golden eyes staring back at him. 

Zuko blinks, a matching expression of shock on his face. Sokka glances around. It’s morning, in broad daylight, and the tea shop is buzzing with other patrons. Zuko is weaponless, apart from his firebending, of course. It’s not exactly ideal ambush conditions. 

“Can I sit down?” he asks, confusing Sokka even further. 

Sokka doesn’t realize he’s nodding until Zuko takes the seat across the table from him. 

Zuko takes a deep breath, but he doesn’t speak. Sokka taps his finger on the table. He clears his throat. 

“What are you doing here?”

“My uncle and I are refugees.”

“It has nothing to do with the fact that we are in the same city?” 

“I had no idea,” Zuko confesses, staring at the table. He then looks up, and Sokka almost jumps at how sincere and vulnerable his expression is, no hard exterior for once. 

Sokka sighs and stands up. As frustrating as Ba Sing Se is, the peace had been nice while it lasted. “Well. I should probably go warn them so we can get a head start before you begin chasing us again.”

“Sokka, wait -“ Zuko starts, grabbing his arm, and the contact seems to send a shock through both of them. Zuko jerks his hand back and Sokka stares at him in surprise. 

“Can I just...” Zuko sighs, biting his lip. He looks back up at Sokka. 

“What?” Sokka bites. “What do you want?”

“I just...wanted to know the name of the color of your eyes.”

Sokka blinks back at him in disbelief. “You don’t know?”

“I haven’t told anyone, not even my Uncle, that I can see color,” Zuko admits. 

Sokka hesitates. “Blue. It’s the color blue.”

Zuko smiles just a little at that, and Sokka takes his seat again. “Blue. It’s a nice color.”

“Your eyes are the color of gold,” Sokka says before he can stop himself. 

* * *

Sokka doesn’t say anything to the rest of the group. He acts like everything is normal, and as often as he can manage without seeming suspicious he finds excuses to leave and spend the next few hours in the Jasmine Dragon. 

Sometimes he sits at a table and Zuko talks to him whenever he gets a short break. Sometimes it’s too busy and customers shoot them pointed glances, so Sokka hangs around the kitchen instead and Iroh shows him how to make the perfect cup of tea. 

They talk. Sokka learns a lot about Zuko’s uncle, sharing some of the more humorous moments of their three years traveling the world in search of the Avatar. Zuko gets an earful about Sokka’s sister. One day when the shop is almost empty, he is telling a story when he accidentally mentions that Aang is Katara's soulmate, and then he stops, worried he has brought up a touchy subject. 

He chances a look at his own soulmate, only to see Zuko biting his lip and nervously adjusting the sleeve of his uniform. 

“What color is this?” he asks eventually. 

“That’s green,” Sokka answers. 

Every visit after that, he finds new colors to teach Zuko. Zuko listens attentively and sometimes he confuses the names, but he’s learning. Iroh doesn’t say anything, but Sokka is pretty sure he has overheard by now and figured it out on his own. 

“Come again soon,” Iroh says, waving goodbye as Sokka leaves the shop late one evening. 

Only Sokka doesn’t get the chance. The next time he sees Iroh, the older gentleman is asking them to help him rescue Zuko, pretending like he doesn’t know who Sokka is. And the next he hears about Zuko is while he is on the back of Appa, flying away from Ba Sing Se as Katara furiously tells Sokka about how she thought Zuko had changed until he started fighting against them again.

Sokka feels a pit in his stomach. He had also thought that Zuko had changed. 

* * *

“I know I don’t deserve it after everything I have done, but I’m asking for you to give me another chance. Please.”

Sokka’s shoulders are tense and the grip on his sword tightens while Katara speaks up, her voice echoing through the Western Air Temple. 

“You’re right. You don’t deserve it. How stupid do you think we are?” she scoffs. 

Zuko opens his mouth and then closes it. His eyes shift over to Sokka’s now and they stay there for several moments, Zuko’s eyes pleading with him and Sokka trying to block out memories of the two of them laughing and having whispered conversations in a kitchen in Ba Sing Se. 

“I hurt you, Sokka, and I am so sorry for that. I know that now you probably don’t want me for a soulmate, but it still means something, at least to me,” he says evenly. 

“Your what? Sokka, what is he talking about?” Katara barks, her eyes glancing at her brother for just a moment. 

Zuko’s golden eyes widen in realization and Sokka feels anger flare up inside of him, hot and bitter. He’s angry at Zuko for turning against them in the first place, he’s angry at the universe for always bringing them back together, he's angry at himself for keeping this secret from his friends, he’s angry at the very idea of soulmates.

“Get out of here. Now,” he says, his voice shaking with barely suppressed rage, and Zuko is gone a minute later. 

Sokka collapses on the ledge of the fountain, his head in his hands, and he takes a shaky breath. He can’t look at the others right now, but he feels Katara sit next to him even before she places a hand lightly on his back. “I’m sorry.”

“That my soulmate is Prince Jerkface?” he lets out a humorless laugh. 

“No,” she says forcefully. “I’m sorry you felt like you couldn’t talk to us about it. I understand why, and it must’ve been hard.”

Sokka feels the tension leave his back. “Yeah. It sucked.”

He rubs a hand across his face and finds there is no color to his tears. 

He wants to stay angry, he wants to hate Zuko, but the reality is that the next day he proves himself and Sokka doesn’t want to have to watch him walk away again. 

All eyes are on him to make the final call on whether or not to accept Zuko in the group. He’s not sure if the selfish thing is to make him leave or to let him stay. It doesn’t matter. He knows what they need to do, so he nods in agreement and looks away from the way Zuko’s smile lights up and pretends to not feel happy about the decision himself. 

* * *

The war balloon is silent except for the occasional stilted conversation. Sokka stares out at the ocean below and the clouds above, trying to focus on the task at hand and not think about how against all odds, he is with his soulmate again. In the sky. Alone. As they head toward a reckless but necessary mission. 

Zuko stares into the fire, fueling the flames just to give himself something to do, when he looks up at Sokka’s gasp. 

Sokka has only been able to watch a few sunsets since he started seeing color, and he never tires of them. He rests his elbows on the edge of the basket, his chin resting on his palms, and he doesn’t look away as he senses Zuko coming over to stand next to him. 

“It’s beautiful,” Zuko says quietly, and Sokka forgets that he’s supposed to be mad at him. 

“Yeah, it is,” he agrees. 

Zuko points at the sky surrounding the sinking sun. “That’s orange, yeah?”

“Yeah, good memory,” Sokka says, remembering Zuko’s frustration at having the tendency to confuse it with yellow. 

“And is that pink? In the clouds?”

“Yes.”

“That...is that gold? Like my eyes?”

Sokka looks over at him, and finds he can’t look away. “Yeah. Like your eyes.” 

* * *

The night they return to the Western Air Temple, Sokka gets a moment alone with his father. 

He can’t think of any way to approach the subject lightly, so he just says, “I can see color,” without any prelude. 

Hakoda’s eyes light up, looking away from the dying fire to smile at his son. “Really? Is it that Suki girl? Is she your soulmate?” 

Sokka shakes his head, thinking of a time when he wished it was Suki, but they have realized they are on different paths. “No it’s...it’s Zuko.”

Hakoda is silent. When Sokka looks up at him again, he’s smiling softly. “Sokka, I want you to remember something. The universe may have brought you together, but only you decide if you stay that way. Soulmates are not found. They are made. Whether or not he is truly your soulmate is up to you.”

Sokka takes in a shaky breath. “I mean, he comes in handy for prison breaks.”

Hakoda chuckles. “A good quality in a soulmate.” 

* * *

The day of Sozin’s comet, they are preparing to say goodbye, uncertain if they will ever see each other again. Sokka pulls Zuko aside when he finds what he suspects is his last opportunity to get a moment alone with him. 

“Why did you change sides?” he asks, the question having echoed through his mind ever since Zuko first showed up at the Western Air Temple. 

Zuko takes a deep breath, glancing down at where Sokka is still holding his hand. “I knew what I was doing was wrong, I knew my father was wrong. I was going down a path that I didn’t want for myself, and...and the colors started to fade. At first, I thought you were dying, but then I realized it wasn’t that. The path I was on was leading me somewhere else, as if I was not only choosing a new destiny, but also a new soulmate. But I didn’t want a different soulmate. I wanted you.”

Sokka takes in Zuko’s golden eyes. And then he kisses his pink lips. 

* * *

There is a terrifying moment, in the middle of the fight, when the colors start to flicker and fade. At first Sokka thinks it’s because of the heavy clouds, or maybe the pain from his leg, but no. The colors of the world flicker between black and white before settling on a much more pale hue than they had been moments before. He can hardly distinguish them from the blacks and whites he saw for so many years. 

It stays like that for a few agonizing minutes, and he tries to not let it distract him from their mission. 

And then slowly, but surely, the colors come back to life. 

* * *

He still doesn’t feel like he can breathe until he sees Zuko again with his own eyes. He looks like hell, but he’s alive. He’s alive, and Sokka could cry from relief. 

Suki helps Sokka limp over to him, and Zuko’s eyes light up before he frowns. “You’re hurt.” 

Sokka raises an eyebrow, glancing at the giant scar on his chest peeking through his torn shirt. “You’re one to talk.”

Suki helps Sokka sit down, and she leaves the two of them alone. Zuko smiles at her before turning his attention back to Sokka. 

“Are you okay?” he asks. 

Sokka nods. “Man, I’m fine. What happened to you? Are you alright?” 

“I will be,” Zuko gives him a tight smile that relaxes when Sokka grabs his hand. 

“So will I,” he says. 

Zuko is silent for a few moments, holding Sokka's hand tightly and meeting his gaze without hesitation. “You know,” he says quietly, searching Sokka's eyes intensely. “I think blue is my favorite color.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, Zuko didn't make the connection that the color of his Blue Spirit mask is, well, blue, until days after Sokka taught him the name of that color. And then he keeps that secret to his grave. 
> 
> As always, let me know your thoughts, and come find me on my [Avatar the Last Airbender blog](https://bisexuallsokka.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
